A bed of roses

So, the 'five days of grandson' passed in a bit of a blur in the end.  He did spend time on his XBox but he also spent tie with us.  He was more excited about Christmas than I've seen him in years, and liked all of his presents.

The son also made an effort and slept Christmas Eve after work so that he was up all of Christmas Day with us.  I felt I spent all day with the family but, looking back, I did spend quite a long time in the kitchen finishing off the dinner.  But they could have joined me.  I don't mind people in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking, I just mind them trying to cook!

Anyway, I got a very nice new dressing gown, some gloves, a Doctor Who calendar, chocolates, and LOTS of LUSH stuff.  A very nice haul.  My 'Christmas game' this year was Ni No Kuni - which won't be out until the end of March.  Yeah...  But it might be time to get Horizon: Zero Dawn.  After I finish Primal.

I will be spending some of my time off playing Primal.  I also have quite a few films on the Tivo to watch.

I watched the Christmas episode of Doctor Who after everyone had gone to bed.  It was mostly not about Christmas - except when it was (sigh).  It was lovely to see Bill again.  She is definitely the best companion since Rose, and possibly the best ever.  So, of course, she only got one series (double sigh).  Favourite line was Doctor Twelve saying to Doctor One - remember where you parked the TARDIS; it'll come up a lot - followed by Doctor Thirteen falling out of it!  But we have a new Doctor and a new head writer and I am very excited.

OK, that's enough for today, DW.

 So, yesterday the daughter and I took the grandson shoe-shopping for school shoes.  Town was heaving (of course) but the shoe shops were all pretty quiet.  We had a list of criteria, some from the school, some from us.  The shoes couldn't be 'trainer type' (which crosses off at least 50% of those available - and ALL the ones he liked), or have coloured labels (goodbye Kickers), I don't like kids in slip ons (cross off about 10% of what's left), or anything too 'posh' (he's going to school not a wedding - lose at least another 20%) and I thought he should wear lace-ups rather than velcros (lose about 30%).  So, yeah, not much left.  Added to which, his trainers are a size 3 but all the size 3 school shoes fell off him - he has his mother's narrow feet.  Shoes below a size 3 tend to be velcros because they're for younger children.  Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth from all three of us!

But we did manage to find a pair that met the criteria, that fitted and, most importantly, that he liked.  And they were a lot cheaper than I was expecting.  The daughter thought they wouldn't last long but I think there's a good chance his feet will grow soon anyway, so I'm happy to get another pair in the New Year.

I invested in some toothy tabs from Lush as an alternative to toothpaste in a plastic tube.  They seem OK, so far.  If they work out, I'm also going to get the mouthwash.

Today, I plan to hoover the upstairs and clean the bathroom and toilet.  And wash my clothes.  The grass is also getting VERY long - tomorrow's job, I think, if it stays dry.

Every time I sing 'Ordinary World' I get an urge to write a song fic.  I suppose I haven't said I'll NEVER write another but I am trying to focus on original stuff.  But the line 'what would you wish if you saw a shooting star' is just MADE for Rinoa...

And I am about to head into the final battle of FFXII:ZA.

 Well, fresh air, anyway.  The daughter invited the husband and myself to brunch at The Tavern in Allerton.  Husband, daughter and grandson all had cooked breakfast (bacon, sausage, black pudding, egg, beans, mushrooms, tomato, toast), I had lemon curd and raspberry pancakes with cream.  It felt weird to be having dessert for breakfast but they were GOOD.  I just about finished mine (with the help of three free cups of coffee) but the others struggled.  If/when we go again, I think I'll try the eggs benedict.  

Then we went into town so that the grandson could spend some more of his birthday money, which had been the original purpose of him and daughter going out yesterday.  They hadn't spent much time together over the summer holidays and she had promised him that they would go out.  Then she invited us to brunch and we tagged along into town!  But it was more a case of them doing what they needed to do and us being with them, rather than it being 'our' day.

We also tried to find the grandson some new school shoes but we didn't have much of a will for it at that point and the pair he really liked were too big.  So, that's a job for another day.  We still have three weekends to get it sorted.  I just don't want to wait until the last minute...

The husband found some really nice Liverpool FC-themed t-shirts, though, so it was worth going out!  And it was nice being out as a family.  It really is giving us the taste for going out more regularly.

Thursday's Team Meeting (church not work) was fun with M in the chair for the first time.  She is so full of energy and enthusiasm.  She gave us a couple of warnings about her style - when she says 'ooh, wouldn't X be a great idea?' she is just throwing out suggestions, she doesn't expect us to run around and make X happen if it ISN'T a good idea; and if she's getting ratty, we should ask if she needs to eat something.  I also realised it's the first time I've told her I've got a grandson who's 11.  It's so long since I first met her and we've been looking forward to her coming so much and I've met her a few times and felt like I've known her forever - but really, we barely know more than each other's names!

We are going to find a time when we can meet up for a coffee and I can give her the Potted History of Rosa.

She also said she and her family feel like they've lived in Liverpool forever and it's really only a few weeks.  People say that all the time about Liverpool.  It has a wonderful way of absorbing people.

And otherwise I've been gaming the hell out of FFXII:ZA.  I'm 60+ hours in, my characters are all at Level 49 (Penelo has just slipped over the line into 50), I have 4 espers, 28 hunts (up to and including all the Level 5s) and I am ready to go back to Giruvegan.  I've explored the whole of Zertinan Caverns because I forgot how to get to the extra bit where the Belito Hunt takes place; I don't have the map yet, because the urn is guarded by two VERY big nasties.  I have also cured the Dalmascan Patient, which is a sidequest i really like - it proves the value of the random kindness of strangers.  I have not yet tackled the floaty weedy thingies in Mosphoran Highwaste, or the fishing challenge (which I want to at least have a good go at, this time).  This game is SO enormous...

I'm going everywhere by foot to pick up license points, even though I know that I will have far more than I need.  I'm not learning many of the accessories because there are just too many to make sense of and they confuse me - Rose Corsage and Bangle are good to have, though.  I made Fran and Balthier ranged fighters and they should probably have been my Black and White Mages, too. I intended Basch and Ashe to be my tanks and they are - but Penelo kind of is, too, when I intended her and Vaan to be the melee fighters.  So, if I ever do a 'start from scratch' walkthrough, I will definitely rethink the job roles.  When I first began, I just got a bit bewildered by the whole Zodiac License Board thing.  But I do have two fairly well-balanced teams and am tackling all the enemies pretty well.  Of course, my standard 'strategy' of over-level and beat the bastards into a pulp ALWAYS helps!

Well, that's all for now, DW.  Toodles!